Did I say We stop at every historical marker and every historic district?

We arrived here after a pleasant two and a half hour drive from Winter Park just as the sun was setting on either side of the 3 mile long causeway to Cedar Key. Our home for a few days is the Gulf Side Motel that is indeed right on the gulf. A pink painted 1950’s style motel with brightly colored doors and lawn furniture with includes two-seater hanging swings and hammocks interspersed between the palms. Morning coffee was consumed on one of those swings this a.m. and after a full day we have returned to watch the setting sun.

After our initial cup of coffee we walked a few blocks to Eat at Pat’s who served up a gigantic breakfast for two for $14.95 (this is not a bad price for a place whose major reason for being there is tourists) Well sated we browsed in a few stores and then drove to the nearby Cedar Key State Park and Museum ([1], [2] and [3]) where we looked at their exhibits and found another swing and rocking chairs where we sat under the shade of a live oak and just enjoyed the scene.

These days they are marketing this area of Florida as the Nature Coast or sometimes Old Florida. It is both. Relatively undeveloped and laid back it is a place where life is taken at a much slower pace. We’ve been here before for a very short stay and vowed to return.

Fortified by a root beer float, which served as our lunch, we headed for the number one tourist attraction in Cedar Key the Historical Society Museum. Given that the four rooms of exhibits had probably not been updated in some time this ranking does give you some idea of just how little there is to do here besides sitting and enjoying the scene. Nonetheless, we did learn a great deal about the history of the town and the myriad times it has been destroyed by fires and hurricanes some of which happened at the same time.

At one point all the mail headed from the U.S. to Cuba went through Cedar Key. At another time it was the pencil capital of America. Think Eberhard Faber and the land covered with cedar trees before he arrived to make pencil. There was, of course, fishing and diving for sponges and a factory that made whiskbrooms from sabal palms.

Using a map and guide that we purchased from the Historical Society we then drove around to view the historically important buildings in town. Plus a few detours of our own making just to enjoy the scene.

We had dinner at Tony’s Restaurant tonight where we were surprised to learn that they were 3 time winners of the World Chowder Championships ’2009 thru 2011. After winning the award three times, they enshrine the recipe and give someone else a chance. The chowder tasted pretty good on this particular night in 2013.